Review & Recommendation: Cult Nails Effect Top Coats

So I sadly ordered items from Cult Nails on May 6. I say sadly because I bought everything I could possibly want from them, only to find out they decided to have a 50% off promotion a few weeks later. I have awesome luck. I delayed this review because I wanted to see how long the polishes I tried last, and being me, I ended up delaying it too long and forgot all about publishing it. /u/ashhole613 kindly posted that they're having another 50% off deal at midnight, so definitely get them now!

Also, not sure if referral bonuses stack up, but this is my referral link: http://r.sloyalty.com/r/tED8MGb2tx3g

And you get $12 of $24 if you use it. Full disclosure, I get a $5, so if you're not comfortable with that, no need to use it. These nail polishes are definitely worth buying at full price :)

From left to right: Dance All Night, Wicked Fast, Feedback, Wax That..., Alter Ego, Doppelganger

I ordered:

• Doppelganger - LIMITED EDITION (Effect Top Coat) 
• Alter Ego - LIMITED EDITION (Effect Top Coat) 
• Dance All Night - LIMITED EDITION 
• Feedback - LIMITED EDITION
• Wicked Fast (Speed Dry Top Coat) 
• Wax That... (Wax Effect Top Coat) 

Turnaround Time:

• Ordered: May 6
• Shipped: May 7
• Received: May 26

I'm not sure what happened to this order, but usually, it only takes 2 weeks for USPS to reach me. This took 19 days. It's not bad, but definitely longer than usual.

I decided to try out two Effect Top Coats, Alter Ego & Wax That... Here's the Cult Nail's Description for both products:

Alter Ego

"Alter Ego is a sheer top coat that will cast a gold and green tinge over your polish, creating an aged, antiqued, look."

Wax That...

"Wax That... is an effect top coat that gives your manicure the look of melted candle wax.  It can be described as a satin/matte finish."

I was definitely excited to check out Wax That..., but when I saw Alter Ego, I got disappointed at first. It looked like a normal gold nail polish and I thought I fell for a gimmicky description. I was so wrong. Check out what it does to a light nail polish and a dark polish:

Left: Just plain old nail polish. Sally Hansen "Black Diamond" & Formula X "Brilliant", with Sally Hansen's Maximum Growth Base Coat
Right: With Cult Nail's "Alter Ego"

Holy crap, this is magical! It actually is a green-gold duochrome top coat! Here's more pics to show off the duochrome

It's even more awesome in real life.

The effect of this top coat is more visible against a dark background, but it makes a lighter nail polish also look like it's been sprayed by fairy dust. It looked so perfect, I didn't want to ruin it by adding anymore layers, but I'm also really excited to try out Wax That... Decisions, decisions. I decided to go for it and wow.

Left: With Wax That... Top Coat
Right: Without

Again, my camera can't capture how awesome this is. It's a matte duochrome. Mindblowing. This matte is a more buttery matte than OPI's matte nail polish, which has a similar look as a chalkboard. Maybe I haven't explored enough, but I honestly haven't seen this texture before. I'm freaking amazed. My nails look like they went through an instagram filter that reduces contrast and adds a vintage effect.

And yes, the duochrome is still in effect under this top coat!

Matte Duochrome!

You need to buy this.

The amazing thing is that even though manicures usually only last 2-3 days on me thanks to me not being able to keep my hands still, these lasted at least 5 days on me (some started chipping on the 5th day, I started picking on them on the 6th day and further ruined them before wiping them off on the 7th day). I even tore my nail while trying to pry open the cap of a perfume sample, but the nail polish stuck!

This is how it looks like after 4 days:

Sorry for the yellow lighting. This is the last photo I had before they started to peel off about a day later. And yes, I tend to pick on my cuticles >.<

When they do come off, I think it's my base coat's fault. They come off cleanly like this:

Aww darn! The rest still looked pretty good!

I've used this base coat before with other polishes, as well as used these base colour nail polishes before, and none of my manicures lasted this well.

I totally see why these are called Cult Nails. I can feel myself getting sucked into the cult. I can practically hear people chanting, "One of us....one of us...."